Helsinki

Monday, May 26, 2014
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
I just discovered I forgot this port.
 Helsinki May 26 . MondayToday we arrive in Helsinki. FinlandThe capital of Finland which is on the Baltic Sea. We lost one hour in time. It was another sunny warm day, 75 or so. We are still overdressed! Most people speak English but there is little written or signed in English. The history is all a blur to me, but once it belonged to Sweden so all street signs are in both languages. They were also Russian at one time. They really hate Sweden in athletics. They do not have to win as long as Sweden looses. Another city claiming to be the Venice of the north. There are no skyscrapers here. There may as many stories underground as above. We toured the highlights and went into the country side to a 14th century town, Porvoo. This has an old town that is mostly wooden house. It seems everywhere we go the towns burned down and rebuilt over the centuries. Most now have laws forbidding buildings of wood. We saw the fields were planted, but the guide only knew it was grains. There are high moose fences. It is very expensive here.The waters freeze so speed skating is popular . They have other events to help pass the long winters, such as wife carrying. She suggested we look this up on you tube! We pass an area that was roasting coffee! What an great aroma! This is a country of 180,000+ lakes. In Porvoo we got a photo of Susan in a crown chair. It had a sliding wire crown on the back so that when you sat in it you could adjust the metal crown to fit the seated person. Clever. We hear some things about WWII. Angry Birds was invented here! We had a boat ride on the archipelago. The boat was 82 years old. I nearly froze on the top deck from the wind over the water. It was so warm I did not take a jacket. Then we were taken to villa Haikko restaurant for lunch. We had salad, chicken with cranberry sauce , chocolate mousse cake and coffee. We stopped at Rock church in Helsinki. This was carved out of the stone surrounding the area. A German youth choir was warming up. They sang  "Lord I want to be a Christain in my heart"....whatever the name was. We have to leave for the bus of course! There was a singing and dancing show tonight, The Land of Make Believe. Susan loves these and this was a new one to us.
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Comments

dwlp.travelkids
2014-06-02

Glad you remembered this one...we are always thrilled to get an installment in tricruiser's latest adventure belated or not. It will be good to get you home very soon.

2025-02-11

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